The details of the elder Partouche’s statement can be found here, but in short he began the day with an impassioned speech announcing the official end of the Partouche Poker Tour.
With tensions high about a prize pool short of the advertised €5 million guarantee, Partouche, upset at being called a cheater, took the mic for the shuffle up and deal and instead pulled the plug on the PPT for good while sticking to his claim the prize pool was never guaranteed.
In the aftermath the Partouche Marketing Director resigned, Twitter feeds blew up (until the Wifi was cut off) and the staff and players were left to pick up and carry on as the tourney played down into the money.
Still, plenty of poker was played and when the trying day had wrapped Scemion, known online as wizowizo, had grabbed the chip lead with 47 players left.
He’ll return for Day 4 tomorrow as the only player past the 1 million mark with 1,251,000 and a 300k chip lead on second place Karen Sarkisyan.
Smith, Renkemeier Climb; Williams Plummets
Of the notable names to survive, two in particular used Day 3 as a springboard to the top of the field.
American Dan Smith, he of high-roller crushing fame, jumped into the top 10 and ended the day with 577,000 in chips.
German Tobias Renkemeier, a high-stakes crusher in his own right, also made his move and bagged up 446,000 to sit eleventh.
Several other notables made it through the day but will have their work cut out for them tomorrow with middling to smaller stacks.
Among those returning include:
Kyle Julius 277,000 Justin Bonomo 267,000 Antoine Saout 243,000 Dan O’Brien 203,000 Andrew Lichtenberger 148,000 David Williams 148,000 Tristan Wade 134,000Williams, one of the chip leaders heading into the day, had a tough go of it and dropped well down the leaderboard by "losing lots of pots."
Needless to say he wasn't pleased:
Finished the day with a disappointing 148,000. Playing 4/8k with 47 players remaining. Day 4 tomorrow. #getthatmoney
— David Williams (@dwpoker) September 6, 2012Play picks up tomorrow from Cannes with 47 players and plans to get down near a final table. Follow along with the live updates in French here.
Here are the official payouts, as posted by the PPT:
1. €1,000,000 2. €592,570 3. €355,970 4. €291,590 5. €228,070 6. €190,560 7. €152,190 8. €118,940 9. €89,870 10. €63,940 11. €55,420 12-13. €46,890 14-15. €42,630 16-17. €38,360 18-19. €34,100 20-25. €29,840 26-33. €25,570 34-39. €21,310 40-49. €17,050 50-57. €14,920Visit www.pokerlistings.com